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Under Washington law negligent driving can be a crime or a civil infraction.

Negligent driving in the first degree is defined by RCW 46.61.5249, which states:

(1)(a) A person is guilty of negligent driving in the first degree if he or she operates a motor vehicle in a manner that is both negligent and endangers or is [...]

Under Washington law reckless driving is defined by RCW 46.61.500, which states:

(1) Any person who drives any vehicle in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property is guilty of reckless driving. Violation of the provisions of this section is a gross misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment of not more than one year [...]

The word is out that the punishment for Washington state DUI laws is among the toughest in the nation.  However, what is not well known is that the mandatory minimum confinement penalty for a single violation of DUI probation is harsher than the mandatory minimum penalty for the underlying DUI. For instance, for an individual [...]

In past years it was common procedure for Washington State DUI arrests to be recorded on police video. Jurors have come to expect this, based upon TV shows such as “Cops.” Video recording a DUI arrest is good public policy because the video constitutes independent verification of what actually happened during the entire DUI arrest [...]

A pilot who is arrested for a Washington State DUI faces not one, but three separate challenges: (1) the Department of Licensing will administratively suspend the license to drive, (2) the court will impose jail, fines, alcohol programs, etc, and (3) the FAA will get involved. Thus, for a pilot, two state agencies (DOl and [...]

Every DUI stop, whether a DUI in Seattle, Bellevue, King County, or a DUI stop elsewhere in Washington State, is likely to involve field sobriety tests. Most people submit to the field sobriety tests on the assumption that (1) they are required to take the tests and (2) if they “pass” the field sobriety tests, [...]

For someone who lives in another state, a criminal charge of DUI will cost you more than money; it will cost you a significant amount of time. If you live out-of-state, you will likely have to make many trips to Washington to deal with your case.

In February of this year, the long anticipated decision in State v. Baity, 140 Wn.2d 1 (2000) was published and the battle over the admissibility of Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus (HGN) was thrust to the forefront. HGN is the side to side jerking of the eyeball, a natural phenomenon that can be exaggerated by the consumption [...]

There are those who call it nitpicking when DUI defense attorneys ask judges to throw a breath test out of court for what looks like a trivial error in approved scientific protocol and procedure. Preventing injustice is not nitpicking. When scientific evidence is offered to punish a citizen, it is critical to know whether the [...]

I think it was Steve Miller who famously stated, “My Mazerati does 185, I lost my license, now I don’t drive…” While Steve Miller was correct that speeding is one way to lose your license, there are other ways as well. Consider a DUI conviction for instance. Actually wait, consider a DUI charge first. This [...]